Transportation

Programs/Resources

The Community and Economic Development Department at OCWCOG is divided into two main functions – Business Services and Transportation. This section focuses on the transportation services – non-emergent medical transportation, coordinating carpool/vanpool, serving as the Region’s two metropolitan planning organizations in Albany and Corvallis, and coordinating the Safe Routes to School program for some of our community’s schools. OCWCOG’s transportation services assist our Region’s communities to collaborate on improving our roads and our vital transportation facilities.

Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA) – Inclusive Transportation Grant in Lincoln County

OCWCOG received a grant to learn how to further involve older adults and people with disabilities in Lincoln County in transportation planning. Granted by the Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA), the end result will be a best practices guide to share with government officials on how to include typically under-represented populations through transportation planning and construction projects. Staff are in the process of conducting an online and paper survey. The survey asks a number of questions related to how engaged older adults and people with disabilities are currently, and how engaged they want to be, in transportation planning. If you would like to take the survey, please click HERE. If you know somewhere in Lincoln County we could reach respondents, please contact us to let us know!

Spring 2018 – The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) announced the recognition of Marys Peak to Pacific as a Scenic Byway, along with two other scenic byways, bringing the State’s total to 29. The Scenic Byway designation is an outcome of years of planning, community outreach, and research along the whole corridor and involving design, natural resource protection, economic development, safety, and community standards.

OCWCOG, working closely with a broad group of partners, assisted in the designation of State Highway 34 as the Marys Peak to Pacific Scenic Byway, connecting I-5 near Tangent to the Coast in Waldport. Our Region now boasts three Scenic Byways as the Marys Peak to Pacific Scenic Byway joins the Over the Rivers and Through the Woods Byway, together crossing from the Cascades to the Coast, and the Pacific CoastScenic Byway that runs from Washington to California through Lincoln County. Utilizing these Byways takes travelers through the heart of our forests and trails; through wine, food, and spirits country; through our innovation corridor; through our working landscapes; and to the beautiful and economically powerful Oregon Coast.

Moving forward, OCWCOG will be working with the ODOT and Travel Oregon on marketing and future route enhancements for our new Scenic Byway.